Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) has been given a top rating by Beta Systems research. The rating takes into consideration a number of factors including potential future earnings growth, analyst sentiment as well as company fundamentals. Beta Research compiles a number of other important data points from sell-side brokerage research as well, including price target and EPS projections. Before making an investment decision, retail and institutional investors alike are typically interested in where analysts see the stock price headed and the earnings per share prospects of a given equity.

Drilling down into the consensus numbers for Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC), the firm currently has a consensus price target of $18.928. This is the average target according to Zacks Research, which might slightly differ from other benchmarks such as First Call or FactSet. The price target range from all research analysts is $15-$24. This is a short-term (one year) price target on the stock.

Covering equity analysts may also provide company stock ratings. Sell-side research firms may use different terminology when evaluating whether a stock should be pegged as a Buy, Sell, or Hold. Zacks Research offers an Average Broker Rating on company shares. This rating compiles recommendations from research analysts, and the resulting number resides on a scale between 1 and 5. Presently, Bank of America Corporation has an ABR of 1.89. Following this rating scale, a score of 1 would represent a Strong Buy, and a score of 5 would indicate a Strong Sell. The average broker rating helps provide investors with a general feel of analyst sentiment on the stock.

Wall Street analysts are typically extra busy during earnings season. Prior to earnings, they are trying to correctly predict what a specific company will report. After earnings, they may be busy sifting through the earnings report and updating future company projections. Sell-side equity analysts are currently looking for the company to report quarterly EPS of $0.38. Most recently, the company reported a quarterly earnings per share actual that landed $0.07 away from what polled analysts were anticipating. This created a suprise factor of 20.59%. On or around 2017-01-13 is when the company is expected to next post earnings results.

The data in this report is in part provided by Zacks Research and Yahoo Finance. The author does not have, nor plans to take any position in Bank of America Corporation shares within the next 14 days. Readers should not consider this as a recommendation to buy or sell company stock. This piece is for informational purposes only. Potentialy investors should always conduct full research before making investment decisions.